And Everything...

 Where oh where to begin. We on A-Shift are winding down the last night of our cycle here at the 4 house. As we speak, Farley is whipping up a delectable meal consisting of venison burritos and rice. The smells wafting in from the kitchen are spectacular. It just so happens that Webb is off today, so we have a transfer from Station 3(Buchanan), Kevin "Turtle" Martin on scene. Quite the character. He won't quit talking about how "swolt" he is going to get tonight in the gym here at The Palace. Best of luck Turtle. The engine company has just marked out of service for the night. I believe we logged one call today on the hose wagon, while the medic truck sits on four so far. Not too bad for a Friday. For the past few work days, there hasn't been the normal amount of runs that I would consider "blog worthy." Fortunately, we have been fairly busy around the station so I will attempt to catch you all up. Today being a holiday(Lee Jackson Day), we were lucky enough to have the afternoon off after a morning full of house work and training. As luck would have it, Jeff "Elmo" Elmore and I noticed that Logistics 7(Clay) happened to be out of town today, which left an entire apparatus bay open for activities! With Jake "Spit Shine" Newton and Lieu. Farley on the box, Jeff and I decided to make the most of our afternoon with an arts and crafts project. For a while now, the station officers have been researching a way to reduce the clutter on the table that contains all of the radio and pager chargers, as well as the Zoll and stretcher battery chargers. With a little ingenuity and some positive thinking, Jeff and I were able to come up with a solution to their quarrel. A 48' x 24' piece of plywood would be utilized to construct a custom made hanging board for the wall, capable of holding six radio straps and radios. An ingenious idea if you ask me. With a little paint and some sand paper the project was a go. Pictured below is Jeff and I putting in the man hours to study the science of what you need...

(Do not worry yourselves, no vehicles were harmed in the making of this board.)

The project literally took ALL afternoon. Not quite what I figured we were getting ourselves into, but it turned out well in the end. The board is painted in traditional BCES colors consisting of forest green, white, and gold. The logo and apparatus identifiers were custom hand painted and drawn by Jeff and I. The tapcons and washers were donated to us by the farmer and the drill used was county owned. 

 Not too shabby for not using a level!

To no ones surprise here at The Palace, the project would not be complete without a slight mistake by Jeff and I. Apparently, using a font that is less than recognizable is hazardous to potential projects and leaves the "do it yourselfers" wide open for typos. As you can see above, Jeff and I managed to spell MEDIC using an Old English C instead of an I. Wow. But have no fear! For we were able to correct our mistake by simply painting of the misused letter and replacing it with the correct one! Just prior to completing our afternoon project, Lieu. Farley appeared and began an impromptu training course of self defense for the first responder. Distracted from our work, we stepped aside and took an ever valuable lesson from the man himself. Here he can be seen demonstrating one of the moves taught to us today. 

I believe this is aptly called the "one legged whipper snapper."

Once back in the zone, Jeff and I were able to finish our "radio board" and hang it in the appropriate location above the radio table. 

Complete and ready for straps! And everything...A special thanks goes out to Lowes for supplying the board, Dupi-color paint products, Rustoleum primer, Sharpe markers, Microsoft Word for the font idea, Dewalt drills, and Logistics 7 for the use of his apparatus bay. We couldn't have done it without y'all! 

In other news, there are certain members of The Palace who recently took a weekend ski trip to Snowshoe in West Virginia. Without naming names(Elmo and Turtle), those members who were not lucky enough to be invited on such an awesome and fun adventure(the rest of the guys), were able to catch a small glimpse of the two tearing up the slopes. 

Sweet tunes guys! If you notice at 1:23 seconds, Turtle almost wipes out an innocent skier! Way to go. Until next time!